The Craziest Network Messes Ever!

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ThinkComputers has a bunch of pictures of the craziest network messes ever. Mess? What mess? Just unplug the lime green cable. ;)

When designing a network most system administrators like a nice and clean cabled cabinet of servers. Well sometimes it does not work out that way. We have compiled some of the craziest network messed ever! Some of these will make even the most seasoned network administratorcringe.
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From a distance, it almost looks like experimental art.
 
I've seen worse. That website is also dogshit slow too.
 
That's nothing compared to my test lab when I first got here. When I took the job as test lab admin, it had been running for several years with test engineers doing whatever they liked with no admin at all. If you know anything about engineers in general, you know that is not a good thing. We had two full rows of racks, set back to back, with the aisle between then carpeted completely in orange FC cables. The floor was completely covered. During the cleanup, I found that one of their vital VM hosts, one they were complaining had horrible network performance, was at the end of a daisy chain of 8 hubs and switches, one of which was a 10Mb hub. Once we got it all cleaned up, they raved about how much it improved performance.

Now I have management calling the test lab after cleanup "too sterile." I have gotten the engineers to keep the cables in the overhead trays and off the floor, for the most part. There are still areas where cables are run in bad routes, but those are just because we didn't have cables long enough to route between the two places properly and no time to get long enough cables. I do the best I can, but it is certainly not perfect, nor "sterile."
 
Make you own cables (fit to length)
Follow a planned route
don't be afraid to re tie a bundle (always have LOTS of ties)
Tag EVERYTHING

It's not that hard, just takes more time.

cablemess13-600x450.jpg

almost there

cablemess12-428x600.jpg

not even trying
 
ViperGrendal said:
Make you own cables (fit to length)
Follow a planned route
don't be afraid to re tie a bundle (always have LOTS of ties)
Tag EVERYTHING

It's not that hard, just takes more time.
Click to expand...

1. make my own cables: do you know how hard that is on the hands? Just putting on end on a CAT5e cable leaves my hands and forearms aching for an hour. I don't even have the equipment for putting ends on FC cables. On top of that, I run a test lab, those cables change places on a nearly daily basis.
2. follow a planned route: yeah, I do that. I even have a plan for where to tuck the slack out of the way. Considering I run about a dozen runs for remote testers per day, this is vital in keeping the test lab usable.
3. don't be afraid to re-tie a bundle: yeah, no, I don't bundle the cables together at all. The way I run them, they stay together in the overhead cable tray quite well.
4. tag EVERYTHING: I do for cables that are going to stay put for longer than a week. Unfortunately, about a third of the FC cables I run are only there for a couple days, and then they have to run to a different target.

So, in theory, this works, but when theory runs into reality, it gets more complicated.
 
dgingeri said:
1. make my own cables: do you know how hard that is on the hands? Just putting on end on a CAT5e cable leaves my hands and forearms aching for an hour. I don't even have the equipment for putting ends on FC cables. On top of that, I run a test lab, those cables change places on a nearly daily basis.
2. follow a planned route: yeah, I do that. I even have a plan for where to tuck the slack out of the way. Considering I run about a dozen runs for remote testers per day, this is vital in keeping the test lab usable.
3. don't be afraid to re-tie a bundle: yeah, no, I don't bundle the cables together at all. The way I run them, they stay together in the overhead cable tray quite well.
4. tag EVERYTHING: I do for cables that are going to stay put for longer than a week. Unfortunately, about a third of the FC cables I run are only there for a couple days, and then they have to run to a different target.

So, in theory, this works, but when theory runs into reality, it gets more complicated.
Click to expand...

Yeah I was thinking about what I'd do in a situation where you're constantly adjusting things. The cabling work I've done/seen is semi permanent, offices/network closets. Never had a problem with the ends on cables, might be the tool? I used a ratcheting style one, as in it clicks as you're crimping. The crimpers I have now, yeah that would be a PITA but I haven't done a big job in years.
 
ViperGrendal said:
Yeah I was thinking about what I'd do in a situation where you're constantly adjusting things. The cabling work I've done/seen is semi permanent, offices/network closets. Never had a problem with the ends on cables, might be the tool? I used a ratcheting style one, as in it clicks as you're crimping. The crimpers I have now, yeah that would be a PITA but I haven't done a big job in years.
Click to expand...

My hands and arms hurt from lining up all the 8 wires in the right order to cut them off at the right, even length before putting the end on. Holding the wires in place as I move each into place is hard.

Being a test lab admin is kind of a dirt job. We have less concentrated skills, so management thinks we shouldn't get the pay of full systems admins, yet we have to have a huge range of skills. I administer 5 DNS domains with multiple changes per day, two of which I designed and built, three independent AD domains on three different versions of Windows, three VM clusters used by developers and testers, and systems from just about every architecture known to man. Not many admins can say they've done installs for AIX, HP-UX, or Solaris, but I get to do all those, plus RHEL, CentOS, SuSE, and Windows, constantly. Yet, I couldn't tell you how to patch any of the Unix versions. I also have to set up vlans and link aggregation on Cisco, HP, Fujitsu, and Dell switches, but I'd have a hard time telling you best practices on how to set up a datacenter network. Because of the lack of experience in anything in-depth in systems administration, I make about 20-25% less than your average systems admins, but it is much better than the desktop support I did for 13 years before I got here.

Right now, I'm building three VMs with three different OSes, just sitting and waiting for the installs. So, I get to post things like this. :)
 
I feel so much better now that I see my server/lan racks are not really that bad :)
 
Damn. Gotta love the one with the big "DO NOT TOUCH ANY OF THESE WIRES!" sign.
 
One of the first things I did at my current job was to make custom length cables for the server room equipment.

As it was, it was pretty much impossible to tell what cable went where since they were all super extra long cables of the same color all shoved into a cable rack.

I ripped all that trash out and now everything is nice and neat for the most part.

Instead of taking 5-10 minutes to trace a cable, it now takes about 5 seconds.
 
ViperGrendal said:
Make you own cables (fit to length)
Click to expand...

Proper CAT 6 cables are not that easy or cheap to make.

By the time you include the the parts and labor costs, I find it's cheaper to just keep a supply of assorted lengh Cat 6 cables on hand
 
kinda reminds me of my attic... not my fault. some dumbass before me ran wires to every window and door for security, just threw them all up there shit crossing everywhere, along with coax, and the old flat antenna wire, phone wires, etc. what a fucking mess.
 
making your own cables, if it hurts, at all you need to get into better shape..seriously.

Unless your doing 10-15 or 20 cables at a go, there should be no pain....

i once did our office set up..110 cables all hand made in about 2 day period, THAT had my fingers hurting!
 
It is amazing what a bit of PVC pipe with holes drilled in it can do to make everything neat and tidy. You don't have to do anything fancy to clean things up.
 
bucketlist said:
Mother of god! I would hate to have that job.
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Seems to me it is job security!! Who else can fix/repair/maintain that mess!!

More similarly spaghetti-like pics can be found here and at the bottom of that page can see pics that show how this..

00before.med.jpg


got turned into this..

03after.med.jpg
 
Some of these almost look like they were made with job security in mind. Only one man knows the cable labyrinth and that is why Wally is still on the payroll.
 
Yeah alot of server rooms are a mess including where i work.
fact is though that mess is alot easier and saves time to make adjustments and repairs and find cables..rather than unsheathing, unclasping, removing from pipes and fish-lining and looking though some OCD wire job that turns into a mess again.
 
Insula Gilliganis said:
Seems to me it is job security!! Who else can fix/repair/maintain that mess!!

More similarly spaghetti-like pics can be found here and at the bottom of that page can see pics that show how this..

00before.med.jpg


got turned into this..

03after.med.jpg
Click to expand...

Yeah..fun times when one cable goes bad..or port
 
nutzo said:
Proper CAT 6 cables are not that easy or cheap to make.

By the time you include the the parts and labor costs, I find it's cheaper to just keep a supply of assorted lengh Cat 6 cables on hand
Click to expand...

What's wrong with Cat5e? I mean, usable for 1Gb, just not 10Gb.
 
OCD would preclude me from ever achieving anything related to networking. Like, at all. I'd just end up frustrated and crazy with those messes.
 
the best is when you you install new gear and the next time you go back some one changed all your colored cables out to other cables and doesn't relabel any thing. to any it workers please leave the ip phone systems and switches alone just because its in your network closest doesn't mean you should re cable it. luckily the guy that did this got fired because he wasn't backing up the files he was supposed to be doing and they had a system crash and lost a lot of there data
 
Looks like behind the tv of damn near every household before HDMI became the new standard and we were using the component/ composite mashup.
 
dgingeri said:
My hands and arms hurt from lining up all the 8 wires in the right order to cut them off at the right, even length before putting the end on. Holding the wires in place as I move each into place is hard.
Click to expand...

C5E is friggin easy. C6 plenum cable is where your thumbs fall off.
 
This is why I patch, then switch, then patch, then switch. This way I can do 1 ft patch cables.

Here is one of the closets that I re-did for one of my schools.

ncesrack03.jpg
 
dgingeri said:
do you know how hard that is on the hands? Just putting on end on a CAT5e cable leaves my hands and forearms aching for an hour. I don't even have the equipment for putting ends on FC cables.
Click to expand...
dgingeri said:
My hands and arms hurt from lining up all the 8 wires in the right order to cut them off at the right, even length before putting the end on. Holding the wires in place as I move each into place is hard.
Click to expand...
You are either:
1. Weak (doubtful because a kid can work these tools)
2. Have beginnings of arthritis (plausible)
3. Have crap tools (most likely)

I have seen some amazing crimping tools. Some designed so well you simply insert plug, insert wires, squeeze, done. I'm betting you are using cheap tools. Better tools don't require enough pressure to make your hands hurt.
 
It's encrypted!! Once you decipher it, it all makes perfect sense!!!
One man's mess is another man's intrinsic sense of organization.
 
Insula Gilliganis said:
Seems to me it is job security!! Who else can fix/repair/maintain that mess!!

More similarly spaghetti-like pics can be found here and at the bottom of that page can see pics that show how this..

00before.med.jpg


got turned into this..

03after.med.jpg
Click to expand...

We have this corporate "concept" at work called 5S where everything looks neat and nice. And the above picture looks like something related to that. Because it does obviously look better and that's a good reason to me, but when it comes to maintance and repair and all that bundled and just barely fits wires can make for a pain. In other words does the effort really make the job easier?
 
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